With 60% Of U.S. Corn Harvested, Things Are Looking Good

With over 60% of the corn harvested in the U.S., one would think that the better-than-expected yields will hold up to the end. It’s a good thing that yields have exceeded expectations, but it has some analysts pondering the question of why that would be the case.

Was the weather pattern more conducive than initially thought? Are American farmers just so much better at what they do today with improved farming practices, equipment and genetic varieties?

The answer to both of these questions is probably a resounding “yes.” We see the same trend with harvest this fall as we saw with planting last spring. And that’s that today’s farmers can flat cover some ground in a hurry when they have to.

So while we’re debating why yields are as good as they have been for quite some time, what we still don’t know is just how big the crop yield will be. Of course, that depends on the final harvested acres count and yield. But one thing we do definitively know is that the cattle industry is far more competitive in the global protein market when we have abundant corn. Ethanol may have significantly decreased the size of our industry but, amazingly, it hasn’t greatly altered our competitive position. If someone wants high-quality, corn-fed beef, America is still the place to go.